baby boy zig-zag quilt

sorry to toot my own horn, but i am so proud of myself for making this quilt!!! {and i'm happy that my friend allison is still my friend after me bugging her so many times for help!} my cute friend allison moved here last summer and is a FABULOUS quilter. her quilting blog is called cluck, cluck, sew {you have to see how amazing this girl really is!} well, i've been wanting to learn how to quilt for a long time...i've made rag quilts before, but i've never really quilted on top of the quilt. so i decided a quilt for baby boy was the perfect place to start. i found the fabric, i just needed to figure out a design. well, i major blog hopped and found this tutorial for a zig-zag quilt and as soon as i saw it, i knew it was the one i wanted to make. i had so much fun making it, and now i'm addicted to something new - quilting!!! i'm so glad i have a friend here to help me too! on saturday we went to the quilting expo in cleveland, and despite being about 40 years younger than the rest of the crowd, we had a tons of fun and both decided that we need $10,000+ quilting arms, wink...wink! so now i have many more quilts in the works, and something else to take me away from my housework...dang.

when life gives you lemons...

m a k e

when i was visiting my mom, she said that she could really go for these cookies, so i've had them on my mind ever since. when she came out last october we found this recipe on food network and tried them out. they were scrumptious! i decided that i needed to make them again for my stampin' up party tonight. i adjusted the recipe a bit b/c the original recipe had some crazy ingredients that i couldn't find at the grocery store...and this worked out great! this is a PERFECT treat for spring time or summer. matt says they "awaken his mouth."

For Cookies

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp butter at room temperature
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest {about 1 lemon}
  
• 2 x large egg yolks
• 1 x whole large egg
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

For Icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice {or more depending on desired consistency & tartness}
  
• 3 tbsp butter {if you want it to be thinner, then melt the butter}
  

To Assemble

1. For cookies, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and stir in lemon zest. Beat in egg yolks and whole egg until fully incorporated. Stir in sour cream until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Chill batter for 30 minutes, just to set butter a little.
2. Preheat oven to 325 °F. Spoon tablespoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, just until the bottoms of the cookies turn golden brown. Allow to cool before icing.
3. For frosting consistency: beat powdered sugar & room temp butter until mixed, then add lemon juice until you reach desired consistency. Then frost the cookies with a knife. For icing consistency: stir powdered sugar into lemon juice until smooth. Stir in melted butter (this will thicken the icing a bit). Dip the tops of the cookies into icing, and place on a cooling rack, so excess icing can drip off. Let cookies set 1 hour before removing, and store in an airtight container, with layers of parchment between the cookies to prevent sticking.